Thanks to David O. for posting the (suggested)
translation...a quick question and comment...see
below...

In Christ,
Christine (ASA member)

--- Rich Blinne <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 7:56 AM, David Opderbeck
> <dopderbeck@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Biblical Archeology Review published a
> transcription of the tablet back in
> > January
> (http://bib-arch.org/news/dss-in-stone-news.asp).
> Some folks on
> > the "biblical-studies" listserv pointed me to the
> following lines as the
> > ones possibly referring to a messiah who dies and
> rises in three days (lines
> > 19-21 and 80 -- context for line 80 given here):
> >
> >
> > 19. sanctity(?)\sanctify(?) Israel! In three days
> you shall know,* *that(?)\for(?)
> > He said,
> >
> > 20. (namely,) yhwh the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of
> Israel: The evil broke
> > (down)
> >
> > 21. before justice. Ask me and I will tell you
> what 22this bad 21plant is,
> >
> > and
> >
> >
> > 75. Three shepherds went out to?/of? Israel …[…].
> >
> > 76. If there is a priest, if there are sons of
> saints …[…]
> >
> > 77. Who am I(?), I (am?) Gabri'el the …(=angel?)…
> […]
> >
> > 78. You(?) will save them, …[…]…
> >
> > 79. from before You, the three si[gn]s(?), three
> …[….]
> >
> > 80. In three days …, I, Gabri'el …[?],
> >
> > 81. the Prince of Princes, …, narrow holes(?)
> …[…]…
> >
> > 82. to/for … […]… and the …
> >
> > So.... ok, I have zero expertise in interpreting
> this sort of artifact, but
> > --- doesn't it seem a wee bit of a stretch to
> claim this definitely refers
> > to a tradition of a messiah who will die and rise
> again in three days?
> >
> >
>
> There's a newer claim on what line 80 is saying. The
> NYT reports it this
> way:
>
> The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering
> messiah, is seen as a
> > necessary step toward national salvation, he says,
> pointing to lines 19
> > through 21 of the tablet — "In three days you will
> know that evil will be
> > defeated by justice" — and other lines that speak
> of blood and slaughter as
> > pathways to justice.
> >
> > To make his case about the importance of the
> stone, Mr. Knohl focuses
> > especially on line 80, which begins clearly with
> the words "L'shloshet
> > yamin," meaning "in three days." The next word of
> the line was deemed
> > partially illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr.
> Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an
> > expert on the language of the Bible and Talmud,
> says the word is "hayeh," or
> > "live" in the imperative. It has an unusual
> spelling, but it is one in
> > keeping with the era.

Unfortunately, a friend in another state borrowed my
copy of The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T.
Wright, but as I recall, when speaking of
resurrection, there is a very particular word (and
derivatives thereof) which is used in the
Bible...something starting with "a" or "n" I
think--translates to "arise" I think...in any case, I
don't think that's the word being referenced here. So
I question (from a very ameteur point of view!)
whether this version of "live" (if indeed it's right)
is really referring to resurrection of the dead in a
strict theological sense, or if its a more general
term applicable to something else?

> >
> > Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr.
> Knohl said he believed that
> > he had deciphered them as well, so that the line
> reads, *"In three days
> > you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you."*

Even if this is speaking of resurrection here, it is
different from that which is presented in the NT. In
the NT, although (in some accounts) there were angels
present after the resurrection, in no place was it by
the angel's command that Jesus rose. On the contrary,
Paul attributes the resurrection to the operation of
the Holy Spirit (a nod to N.T. Wright again for his
book on this topic :) )
> >
> > To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line
> says "Sar hasarin," or
> > prince of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one
> of the primary sources for
> > the Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of "a
> prince of princes," Mr. Knohl
> > contends that the stone's writings are about the
> death of a leader of the
> > Jews who will be resurrected in three days.
> >
> > He says further that such a suffering messiah is
> very different from the
> > traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a
> triumphal, powerful descendant
> > of King David.
> >
> I guess he didn't read Isaiah.
>
> > "This should shake our basic view of
> Christianity," he said as he sat in
> > his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in
> Jerusalem where he is a senior
> > fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman
> Professor of Biblical
> > Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after
> three days becomes a motif
> > developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to
> nearly all scholarship. What
> > happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus
> and his followers based on
> > an earlier messiah story."
> >
> > Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the
> reading and considered it
> > indeed likely that the key illegible word was
> "hayeh," or "live." Whether
> > that means Simon is the messiah under discussion,
> she is less sure.
> >
> > Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy
> of Hebrew Language and
> > emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the
> Hebrew University, said he
> > spent a long time studying the text and considered
> it authentic, dating from
> > no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page
> paper on the stone will be
> > published in the coming months.
> >
> > Regarding Mr. Knohl's thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is
> also respectful but
> > cautious. "There is one problem," he said. "In
> crucial places of the text
> > there is lack of text. *I understand Knohl's
> tendency to find there keys
> > to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three
> crucial lines of text there
> > are a lot of missing words.*"
> >
> No kidding.
>
> Rich Blinne
> Member ASA
>

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Received on Tue Jul 8 12:06:14 2008